Saving Seafood

Fishermen seek to sink grouper limit at 11th Circuit

Two Florida-based fishermen asked the 11th Circuit Thursday to strike down a regulation limiting commercially caught gag grouper, arguing a regional fishery management council did not have the constitutional authority to implement the restrictions.

In 2024, Dominick and James Russo, who own FFC Seafood in Sarasota, Florida, sued the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Marine Fisheries in Alabama federal court over Amendment 56. The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council — a regional body made up of state-level appointees — crafted the rule, which cut quotas for gag group by 85%. The federal agencies approved and promulgated the regulation.

The 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act created eight regional fishery councils responsible for submitting management plans to the commerce secretary to set catch limits and prevent overfishing in federal waters. The statute gives the councils, made up of members appointed at the state level, the power to veto certain decisions by the secretary that change catch limits or reject the councils’ management plans.

The brothers contend that despite exercising “significant” federal control of the fisheries, the members of the council are not appointed by the president or confirmed by the Senate, making their decisions unconstitutional under the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Read the full article at Courthouse News Service

Council appointments renew debate over Pacific monuments

July 7, 2026 — The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (Wespac) will add two leaders from the Hawaiʻi longline industry to its ranks next month, a move supporters say brings extensive fisheries expertise to the council but one that conservation advocates argue further tilts the federal advisory body toward commercial fishing interests. According to a recent report by Civil Beat, the appointments come as the Trump administration continues efforts to expand commercial fishing access in federally protected Pacific waters.

Eric Kingma, executive director of the Hawaiʻi Longline Association, was appointed to one of Wespac’s at-large seats, while Roger Dang was reappointed to the council’s second open at-large seat. Dang owns interests in multiple longline vessels operating in Hawaiʻi’s longline fleet. Both appointments take effect Aug. 11.

Josh Green nominated Kingma and Dang, along with two other candidates, and both he and longtime Wespac executive director Kitty Simonds cited the pair’s extensive experience in seafood, fisheries management and policy.

The appointments follow recent actions by the Trump administration to reopen portions of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and two other Pacific marine monuments to U.S. commercial fishing. Kingma and Dang were among industry representatives present at the White House in June when President Donald Trump signed the proclamation beginning that process.

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MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford exhibit explores fishing’s complex history

May 14, 2026 — A new exhibit exploring the complex history of federal fisheries management is scheduled to open May 14 at the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center.

Titled “In History’s Wake,” the exhibit examines the legacy of the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, according to a community announcement. The law established the 200-mile limit that pushed out foreign factory ships and laid the groundwork for much of the governance and oversight that manages the commercial fishing industry today.

The exhibit will be on display through spring 2027.

The exhibit goes beyond a look at the Magnuson-Stevens Act’s legislative history, examining the evolution of the industry and the often-challenging relationship between commercial fishermen, the state and federal government, environmentalists, and scientists, according to the announcement.

Read the full article at AOL

Rep. Andy Harris seeks ‘fishery disaster’ to aid Maryland watermen

February 6, 2026 — Rep. Andy Harris, R-1st-Maryland, has sent a letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration requesting that the agency declare an economic fishery disaster to provide immediate assistance to Maryland oystermen following this year’s devastating season. The request was made under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which authorizes federal emergency relief for fisheries affected by natural or economic disasters.

Harris sent the letter in response to outreach from members of Maryland’s Eastern Shore delegation requesting federal assistance as local watermen face mounting economic strain driven by severe weather, reduced market access, and increased competition.

“Severe weather this year, combined with shrinking market access and increased competition, left many crews effectively tied to the dock, with watermen able to fish for just one or two days all season,” said Harris. “These pressures threaten both livelihoods and a major sector of the Eastern Shore economy. For that reason, I am urging NOAA to approve a federal disaster declaration because immediate disaster relief is necessary to help watermen recover from the financial losses caused by this season.”

Read the full article at Salisbury Daily Times

Federal appeals court urged to reel in fishing monitor rules

January 20, 2026 — A conservative legal group is asking a federal appeals court to overturn a ruling allowing the government to charge New England commercial fishermen for the cost of boat monitors.

In a legal brief filed with the First Circuit Court of Appeals, the New Civil Liberties Alliance asks the three-judge panel to prevent the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from enforcing an “unlawful” regulation requiring Atlantic herring fisherman to pay for the cost of federal monitors to observe their catch.

The legal fight stems from a 2024 ruling by the U.S. Supreme that overturned the so-called “Chevron doctrine,” a decades-old administrative law principle that directs courts to defer to a federal agency’s interpretation when regulations or policies are unclear.

The principle stems from the Supreme Court’s 1984 ruling in Chevron v. National Resources Defense Council, in which the justices said courts should defer to an agency in “ambiguous situations” as long as its interpretation of a law is “reasonable.”

Read the full article at The Center Square

Evans Becomes North Pacific Fisheries Management Council’s Fifth Executive Director

January 8, 2026 — A longtime veteran of the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council in Anchorage is the federal regulatory body’s new Executive Director. Diana Evans becomes the council’s fifth leader since it was established under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976.

Evans has been employed by the council since 2002 and served as the deputy director since 2017. She replaces David Witherell, who retired in October 2025 after serving thirty-three years with the council. As the Executive Director, Evans oversees a staff of fourteen from the Anchorage office, coordinating public input for regional decisions by US Department of Commerce fisheries managers.

Read the full article at Alaska Business 

Commercial fishers and businesses challenge US federal red snapper plan over dead discards

July 16, 2025 –A group of commercial fishers, seafood processors, and buyers from the U.S. states of North Carolina and Florida have filed a lawsuit against the federal government’s management of the Southeast Atlantic red snapper fishery, claiming that regulators are not adequately taking action on dead discards from the recreational sector.

“This case challenges the ongoing lack of accountability for dead discards of red snapper in the South Atlantic Snapper-Grouper fishery, which directly harms commercial fishermen in that region and violates the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act,” the lawsuit states.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NOAA releases draft update to ecosystem-based fisheries management roadmap

June 20, 2024 — NOAA Fisheries is now accepting public comments on its updated ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) roadmap.

NOAA first established an EBFM roadmap in 2016 to provide guidance on the agency’s policy shift toward implementing ecosystem-level planning for the country’s fisheries. The management style involves setting quotas while also considering how an individual species fits into the wider ecosystem, rather than the status of an individual stock.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

A Supreme Court ruling on fishing for herring could sharply curb federal regulatory power

January 11, 2024 — Fisheries regulation might seem to be unusual grounds for the U.S. Supreme Court to shift power away from federal agencies. But that is what the court seems poised to do in the combined cases of Loper Bright Enterprises vs. Raimondo and Relentless Inc. vs. Department of Commerce. The cases are scheduled for oral argument in tandem on Jan. 17, 2024.

The question at the core of both cases is whether the secretary of commerce, acting through the National Marine Fisheries Service and following the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, can require commercial fishers to pay for onboard observers whom they are required to take on some fishing voyages. In both cases, the plaintiffs assert that the Commerce Department has exceeded its legal authority. That claim turns on how much deference the court should give the agency’s interpretation of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Specifically, plaintiffs are challenging a nearly 40-year-old doctrine of federal administrative law, known as Chevron deference for the 1984 case in which it was set forth. This tenet provides that when a federal statute is silent or ambiguous about a particular regulatory issue, courts defer to the implementing agency’s reasonable interpretation of the law.

In other words, if the agency and federal courts disagree about the “best” interpretation of a federal law, the courts cannot force the agency to accept their version of what the statute means or allows, so long as the agency’s own interpretation is reasonable.

Read the full article at the Conservation

SCOTUS to put the administrative state under scrutiny

October 28, 2023 — The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear two cases that call into question so-called “Chevron deference,” a judicial doctrine that has enabled government agencies to greatly expand their power beyond the authority granted by Congress.

The cases are Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless, Inc., v. Department of Commerce. Both nominally involve challenges to a rule promulgated by the National Marine Fisheries Service that required commercial fishermen to pay $710 per day for an at-sea monitoring program. The fishermen argued that a 1976 law, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, did not authorize the service to create an industry-funded monitoring program.

But the issue the court has agreed to decide goes far beyond the fishing industry. The justices have chosen these cases to review whether it is now time to toss “Chevron deference” into the dustbin of history.

The Chevron doctrine dates to the Supreme Court’s 1984 decision in Chevron U.S.A., Inc., v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. In that case, the justices created a legal test to determine when a court should defer to an administrative agency’s interpretation or decision. When an agency’s action was not unreasonable, and Congress had left the issue ambiguous, the justices said, a court should simply defer to the agency’s judgment.

Read the full article at the Orange County Register